The Man In Black:

Johnny Cash is getting supreme memorial treatment this year, as several different camps gear up to release three different documentaries, a restoration of his boyhood home in Arkansas and a resurrection of the shuttered Hernderson, Tennessee “House of Cash” museum in a new downtown Nashville locale. Speaking to the AP, Cash’s daughter Rosanne had to say of the museum operator, Bill Miller, “He’s been an incredible supporter of my dad and one of the largest collectors of memorabilia, adding, “If anybody has the whole structure to put up a museum, he does.” While Cash’s son, John, had to say of his father’s continuing legacy: “He appealed to people and still appeals to people who have a small CD collection and live in middle America just as much as the punk on the streets of germany.” Cash would have turned 80-years-young this year.

Festallica:

Taking a page from the classic curations of the UK’s “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” in which a veteran artist handpicks a festival lineup, Metallica have announced the inaugural “Orion Music & More” gala to take place at Atlantic City’s Bader Field in New Jersey June 23 and 24, selecting young thrashing upstarts from Titus Andronicus to Fucked Up aside other vets from Lucero to Roky Erickson. Although, in “All Tomorrow’s Parties” case, said curating band wouldn’t be headlining like Metallica plans to, playing The Black Album and Ride the Lightning in their throwback entirety, the former on Saturday and the latter on Sunday. Also, sorry “Loutallica” fans, no Lou Reed mentions so far.

Postcards From Jersey:

Iconic indie anti-folk landmark, Neutral Milk Hotel‘s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, is arguably just as infamous for lead singer’ Jeff Mangum’s off-kilter vocal stamp as for its album cover depicting a “bathing beauty” with an inanimate object replacing the space where her head should be. As album covers and critically-received things go, the stories never end as to how important they are or how they were created. Which brings us to today’s news via SPIN‘s Daniel Kreps, in which an early 20th-century postcard being referenced as the “potatogate” base image for artist Chris Bilheimer’s eventual album cover was found in an antique store in Lambertville, New Jersey. If you’re a NMH nerd, the time to geek out is now. Otherwise, proceed to revisit the genius that is In the Aeroplane Over the Sea on a format of your choice.

Tour-Scrapping:

Citing the well-documented and contentious appearance on Saturday Night Live, the New York Post is reporting that team Lana Del Rey is postponing an upcoming 30-date nationwide tour in order to allow “time for her to clear her head, then go back to selling tickets,” the paper quoted via a source close to LDR and her tour manager. Of course there’s always the encyclopedia of hate to troll through on the interwebs, and divisive record reviews for the artist’s debut Born To Die, released January 31 to fuel speculation, too. The tour was set to kick off as early as March. Meanwhile, Pitchfork is reporting that LDR’s publicist has denied any ties to SNL as a postponing reason, and that LDR plans to tour in October and will continue performing in public and on television.

Lyricapsule:

Swooping in upon New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport for their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, Beatlemania began on this day in 1964 via a few thousand screaming fans, and subsequent airport press conference the Fab Four put on. Also marking the beginning of the British Invasion, at the time, the jangle-mop-top crooner “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was all the chart rage in America – their first, actually – immortalizing McCartney and Lennon’s sentiments: “such a feeling” one “can’t hide.”

About Gavin Paul

Gavin Paul is SONGLYRICS' Editor-in-Chief. Chicago-bred, New York-sculpted, his words and ideas have appeared in publications ranging from Spin and Rolling Stone to The Chicago Sun-Times and Arborist News.